


"Gay, Tired, and Wrong"

by argylemikewheeler



Series: Tumblr Re-posts [37]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Comfort, Coming Out, Gen, Short One Shot, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 04:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18230171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argylemikewheeler/pseuds/argylemikewheeler
Summary: Prompt: It's a couple years after season 2 took place, Will and El are siblings and arguably the closest in the party. Will comes out to his sister and even though she doesn't quite understand she comforts and accepts him.





	"Gay, Tired, and Wrong"

After Jonathan went to college, his room became El’s room. She changed the decor of course, becoming far more involved with MTV than Jonathan could stand to see. She had posters of The Bangles, The Go-Gos, Michael Jackson, George Michael and Wham!, and of course David Bowie. There were other bands, more rugged looking men with huge hair that Will didn’t know. Every time he walked into her room, he found himself staring at them out of curiosity. And for other reasons Will didn’t admit to himself until they were both comfortably in the rut of high school and stupid teenage drama. The most recent squabble sending shock waves through the school was the release of that year’s prom theme. Will didn’t bother to find out what it was; he wasn’t going. **  
**

He had a date and could even get a suit on short notice, he just wasn’t allowed to go with his date. Mike said it was for the better, knowing the assholes that would be there, but it still bothered Will. It stirred his stomach day in and day out. Will couldn’t stop thinking about how his own high school experience was being ruined by _himself_.

He didn’t want to talk about it with his mom, Jonathan wasn’t home often enough, and Will was not going to talk to Hopper about his homosexuality. That just  _wasn’t_ happening. Will only had one other person he considered a worthy source of wisdom, and she was sitting on her bed, practicing her English.

“Will,” El noted his presence before he could even begin his practiced speech. She had a sixth– or was it seventh– sense of knowing wherever Will was. “Wander. Wonder.”

“Yeah?” Will walked to the end of her bed and sat down. He folded his legs up under himself, getting into his usual tutor position. “What about it?”

“They are the same?”

“No. Wander is like, walking.” Will said. “Wonder is like… having a question.”

“Oh.”

“Like, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something.” Will said. El nodded, looking back down at her practice book. Her finger ran along the lines of the page, getting sucked back in. “No, really. I was wondering if you had a second.”

“Yes.” El stopped her finger and kept her place as she looked up at Will. Her eyes were bright and she was dedicated to Will’s words immediately. “Is everything okay?”

“I wanted to ask you about prom.” Will started slow, grabbing his ankles tightly. “Have a date?”

“Max.” Her response was swift and shocking. Will thought, if only for a second, that maybe coming out to his sister would be redundant. But that couldn’t be right… it  _couldn’t_ be. It wasn’t.

“Max? A girl?” Will posed the question to see what she had learned from the world around her; what biases had accidentally slipped into her subconscious while trying to catch up on her language and culture.

“Lucas is going to be in  _Ill-i-noice_.” El said. “He won’t be there and Max has a very pretty dress. And I want her to wear it to prom and show everyone. I want her to be happy.”

“Are you okay not having a guy for a date?”

“Why would I?” El laughed. If there was one thing she had picked up quickly, it was that men were expendable in social situations. Will envied her ability to forget about men. “We’re going to have fun.”

“I’m glad.” Will grinned and reached over to hold his sister’s hand. “You’re going to have so much fun.”

“What about you?” She squeezed his hand. She squeezed in pulses:  _one, two, three_. Will always loved that Mike did the same thing when he was trying to comfort him; they apparently learned it from the other, Will being the only person who held both of their hands anymore.

“I’m not going.” Will sighed. “I’m not allowed.”

“What did you do?” El asked, echoing Hopper’s own question when Will told his parents he wasn’t going. He lied to Hopper though. He wasn’t going to lie to his sister. Friends didn’t lie and siblings didn’t know how.

“Nothing. I just have a date the school doesn’t like.” Will shrugged and squeezed her hand back.

“Who?”

“Mike.”

“Teachers love Mike.” El was ready to argue, her tone one of fact. “They love him.”

Will smiled but the sincerity of El’s confusion made tears boil up to his eyes faster. “Yeah, I know. Mike’s great… but they don’t like  _us_ together.” She blinked at Will, confused but invested. “Do you know what the word  _gay_ means?”

“Ummm, hold on.” She paged through her book with furrowed brows and scanning eyes. “Tired, right? Sleepy.”

“What?” Will tried to see where in the book it insisted that was his main affliction.

“Mike said it the other week. He said ‘I can’t keep doing this fucking sports thing. I’m just so very gay’.” El recited. “He was tired.” Will was dating an  _idiot_.

“Uh, no. Not exactly.” Will said, pretending to not understand Mike’s statement. “It means that two boys, well or girls too, like each other.”

“And sleep together.”

“ _Stop_ … Stop with the tired thing.” Will sighed, shaking his head. “That’s not it.”

“Oh. Okay.” She closed her book and Will felt every attempt he had tried to articulate the concept to his sister settle in the bottom of his stomach. She was so blank on the entire idea, so innocent, so trustworthy of Will’s words. “What is gay?”

“Um, so…” Will had practiced saying it out loud in the mirror. He practiced saying it to Mike. He said it to Lucas, to Dustin, to Max. He said it in his head. That time though, the words scraped over his tongue. “I’m gay.”

“You’re one boy.” She pointed at him. “Where’s the other?”

“That’s Mike.”

“Mike feels gay? I-Is gay?”

“ _Is_  gay.” Will said with a smile, her exploration of the word endearing. “Although, I’d like to argue it’s a feeling too. But, that’s level two stuff.”

“Level two, okay. Level one. Mike and you.” She nodded and cemented the thoughts in her head. She closed her eyes, letting the concepts sink in. “Okay. I’m ready. Go on.”

“Well, not everyone is gay.” Will added. “Mom and Dad. One boy and one girl.”

“Two is gay, one and one is not.”

“Uh, sure.” Will agreed. “If that’s how you see it. Two is gay. So Mike and I are two boys. Two. And prom wants one and one.”

“Okay.” She nodded and sounded eager, as if a larger point was approaching. “What next?”

“T-That’s it. The school doesn’t want two at prom. It wants ones. Only ones.” 

Simplifying it to a point where El was grappling for  _more_ to make sense of everything left Will feeling even more unsettled. Was there something he was missing? Was that the part that made it acceptable to beat Will up and hate him? Was that part El was searching for, that part Will wasn’t even sure of what it was and where it came from, the truth Will just hadn’t bothered searching for? Maybe those bullies had been right the whole time and Will was lying to his sister.

“That’s all?” El repeated. “Why don’t they like Mike?”

“Because he’s a two.” Will wasn’t sure where else the problem could exist, except in their  _own_ existence. “A lot of people don’t like us for that reason.”

“That’s stupid.” She was factual again. “That’s fucking stupid.”

“I agree.” Will said, taking a deep breath and lifting his arms up with his swelling chest. They slapped against his legs as he sighed. “Really fucking stupid.”

“Max and I should not go to prom too.” El continued. “We can be here. Together.”  _One, two, three_  squeeze.

“Are you sure?” Will didn’t want his sister to resent him for taking away her first prom all because he couldn’t just put on a smile and take that girl from history class that kept borrowing pencils from him.

“Yes.” She said firmly. She released Will’s hand and leaned over her book to grab him in a tight hug. Her hands pressed tightly against his back, one eventually resting against the back of his head. He kissed her cheek and was thankful she couldn’t feel the tear rolling down his cheek. There really wasn’t anything wrong with him; it was all just really  _fucking_  stupid.

“Thank you.”

“We can stay up and listen to my music.” She waved out to the posters with one arm before placing it back on Will’s back. “We can be up so late. We’ll all be gay together.”

“El.” Will groaned, his forehead resting on her shoulder. “Gay does  _not_ mean tired.”

“But Mike said–”

“Mike is wrong.” Will chuckled. “Mike is gay, tired, and wrong.”

**Author's Note:**

> [The Rebloggable Post!](https://argylemikewheeler.tumblr.com/post/170401619810/prompt-its-a-couple-years-after-season-2-took)


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